Hi!  I'm Jackie Stearns Jenkins, LMT.  I'm the owner and licensed massage therapist for Massage Works in Bellefontaine, Ohio.  My private practice was established January 1996 shortly after receiving my license from the Medical Board in Ohio.  I grew up in a family that gave each other back rubs and foot rubs.  My dad, having served in the Pacific theater during WWII, even had us walking on his back (when we were small, of course) in imitation of an Asian massage he had had while on liberty.  Touch and its power to be soothing was never more evident in my family than when my younger sister became terminally ill.  I have very strong memories of my Mom carrying her around on one or the other of her hips all the while rubbing her back, arms or whatever in an effort to make her feel more comfortable and more at ease.  She even spent a lot of time rubbing her own belly to comfort my sister who was still waiting to be born.

    I began my massage studies at SHI School of Medical of Medical Massage in Lebanon, Ohio at the "tender" age of 43.  It took 18 months of driving to and from school twice weekly; sitting a 4 hour Medical Board licensure exam plus waiting 2 months for the results before I was granted my license in January 1996.  Then the real learning began.  Our instructors at school told us the "real world" would present us with challenges and situations for which we were prepared with only a basic set of "tools".  It would be up to us to develop our "tools" and our practices to suit the needs of our clientele and our growing awareness of who we were becoming and where we hoped to have our massage practices take us as practitioners. 

    Never was that more evident than with the very first client I ever worked on as a licensed professional.  My nerves were so bad that I nearly forgot how to do a basic relaxation massage.   Since then, I've developed a set of "tools" that is as  varied and interesting to work with as are the wonderful individuals who bless me by entrusting me to work with them for their health and well-being.  I'm no longer nervous and shaken every time someone asks a question regarding services, anatomy, how certain interactions between body parts function, etc.

    My "tool kit" now has many tools in it beginning with the basic therapeutic and relaxation techniques of Swedish massage.  My skill set now includes Ortho-Bionomy, Cranio-sacral, Strain-Counterstrain, Myo- fascial Release, intuitive bodywork, energy healing as well as skills I have developed on my own.   These "tools" are custom blended to provide the most beneficial massage session for each client according to their particular needs for that session.

    Touch, to me, is the most powerful means of assisting another person with their health and well-being.  I have seen its power all of my life.  Touch soothes, excites, relaxes, strengthens, provides nourishment to tissues and organs and so much more.  When combined with focused intent to be helpful to the person with whom you are working, touch can provide a sense and sensation of health and well-being that spreads out into that person's life.  From there, that peacefulness and well-being can spread out to the family, the community, and one may hope, even into the world.  Touch is important.  Touch is loving.  Touch is peaceful.  Touch is healing.  Touch is healthy and necessary.